Great Folk Tales Of Old Ireland

by Mary McGarry (Compiler & Editor), Richard Hook (Illustrator)

book

Genres: Ireland, Fairy Tales, Mythology, Short Stories, Folklore, Childrens, Literature

111 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Pamela Bronson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This rating is an average. The tales are by many different authors and of very different sorts. Some of them I didn't much like and others I liked a lot.


I do think it's good to know these tales, at least some of them.


I'll be glad to stop looking at the cover. It's superficially attractive, but then my eye is drawn to the woman who appears lovely until I notice she has microcephaly.

[Ned Netherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

a very nice collection of old tales, told well by skilled storytellers

[Dubzor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather mixed bag. While some of these tales are classics, others are...not. Lesser known legends are all well and good if they are...well...good. These are not.

The best legends are often so refined from retellings and passing on through oral traditions. All the messy and unnecessary details have been dropped. There is always a clear message or lesson. Or at the very least, they are charming in their creativity and whimsy.

For some reason, there are several tales in this book that clearly haven't been put through this filtering. After you read the you wonder why was this story preserved at all?

The wood cut art is beautiful though.

[Sharon Buxton · Rating 3 out of 5]

C. from stash, discard

[Zahra Rose Duxbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

The lake lay shimmering like silver under the beams of the summer moon. And as he stood there, four swans came sailing towards him, their wings widened as if to enfold him.

Charming, if lacking in congruity. My favourite were The Children of Lir, The Brewery of Eggshells, and The Giant's Stairs.

[Danny Druid · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a nice hodgepodge of Irish folklore. There's a nice story about faeries ("The Brewery of Egg-Shells"), heroes ("Fin MacCumhail and the Son of the King of Alba") and ghouls ("The Crooked Back").

Most of these stories are from Post-Christian Ireland. When Ireland became christianized, a lot of the old folk stories had christian elements added to them or new stories were introduced with christian themes/morals, and stories that didn't have much christianity in them began to fade away. This is very obvious from the first story in the book ("The Fate of the Children of Lir"). I've heard the Fate of the Children of Lir story before, but this is the first time I've heard it were the swan-children later get looked after by a Christian Hermit in the end. I've also heard the "Osin in Tir Na Nog" story before, but this is the first time I've heard it were Osin returns to Erin and talks to Christians.

That fact doesn't really take anything away from my enjoyment of the book, it's just it makes the title and front cover look misleading. It's not stories from the TRULY "OLD" Ireland if the Church is involved!

Overall, the stories were good! Some of them were told in dialect, and that is confusing at times. But it added some flavor to the stories. The illustrations were nice as well.

Recommended for anyone who is interested in folklore. But if you're already well-versed in irish folklore you will find it a little boring.

[Robert Jr. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked this one up from a yard sale not far from our house in San Bernardino at the base of the hills where everything starts angling up and driveways are very steep. The old lady and her husband were very, very drunk. She spoke at me only when I tried to open my mouth, so my wife did all the talking. They let us have ‘em for free, so yay. This book was okay. It's a short hodgepodge of Irish folktales as interpreted by various authors. The tales themselves are fine, I am familiar with most of them and the retellings here range from okay fairytales to very dry accounts. However, by far the worst story in this book is The King and the Bishop.

The entire story is a narrative told by a peasant and the text is virtually all dialogue written in his accent/dialect which makes it impossible to read. I tried several times to get through it, its only about five pages in length, but I just could not do it even scanning it. The terrible method kept me apart from the story. Otherwise, most of the tales are fine.

My favorite was the first, The Fate of the Children of Lir. The Brewery of Eggshells, Diarmid and Grainne, and Oisin in Tir Na Nog were the best besides my favorite. Honorable mentions to The Story of Deirdre, The Giant's Stairs, and The Crookened Back.

The art, on the other hand, I enjoyed quite a bit. If anything it's a quick read, a short book, and the art is worth a couple of bucks to ogle at occasionally. It was okay.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book belonged to my girlfriend, herself of Irish descent. I read it during a summer break from classes at Union Theological Seminary in New York.